The present invention relates to a controllable holding and mounting device including a mounting frame and tie-bars movably supported thereon for installing muntin bars or a muntin grating into a spacer frame of an insulated glass window.
Installing a muntin bar or a muntin grating into spacer frame of an insulated glass window has been realized hitherto by means of a manually operated mounting table, onto which the spacer frame is to be fixed. After having positioned the muntin bar or the muntin grating including the step of aligning these pieces within the frame by means of optical auxiliary lines or integrated measuring tapes the muntin bars or the muntin grating has been manually fixed by using retaining clamps or nails which are shot through the spacer frame from the outside thereof by using a pneumatically operated hammer. Further, plastic plugs are used which are plugged into one end of the muntin bar, so that they abut against an inner side of the spacer frame thereby anchoring the clamps or nails into the plug body.
This method actually has to be performed manually including arranging and adjusting the spacer frame along with the muntin bars or the muntin grating, leading to the fact that due to being labor intensive this method is very time consuming and expensive.
It is thus a primary object of the present invention to provide a holding and mounting device for the above purpose, which device is to be automatically positioned and adjusted in a program controlled manner for realizing the fixing process, i.e. the screwing operation, without any manual handling.
Another object of the invention is to provide an above described device according to which failures in positioning and aligning are eliminated.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a device according to the above aspect which device is designed such that a plurality of units and arrangements can be movably supported by tie-bars which in turn are carried by a mounting frame. Thus, the total operating process is to be carried out automatically including the steps of positioning the frame and the muntin bars or the muntin grating.
According to the invention, there is provided a controllable holding and mounting device comprising
a mounting frame and tie-bars movably supported thereon for fixing muntin bars or a muntin grating to a spacer frame of an insulated glass window, and having
a positioning laying-on device for said frame for carrying a spacer frame to be machined,
a gripping jaw device for gripping the muntin bar or the muntin cross to be installed into the spacer frame, a
screwing device adjustable both in its vertical and lateral directions, the head of which can be aligned relative to the outside of the spacer frame being gripped and hold down for screwing the muntin bar or the muntin cross to the inner side of the frame, and
a distance positioning supporting device connected to the gripping jaw device, wherein all the devices are program-controlled in relation to each other.
By means of this device all possible sources of errors caused due to manual handling can be eliminated leading both to a reduction of manufacturing costs and of manufacturing time as well as to minimum degree of rejects. Since said device can be operated in an almost vertical working plane it is optimally adapted to the manufacturing conditions of insulated glass windows. Further, the space requirements for such a mounting device are more inferior by using the said device in accordance with a mounting frame including tie-bars arranged thereon.
Other preferred embodiments of the invention are characterized in the subclaims. In this respect, it is to be noted that the screwing unit is movably supported on a bearing block in the longitudinal direction of a tie-bar of a mounting frame for said spacer frame and comprises a plate including a guiding rail and is adjustable in its height, which plate can be moved in the longitudinal direction relative to the spacer frame for the purpose of centering. Further, the claw unit comprises a sensor pin movable relative to the distance positioning supporting device, so that the upper surface of the spacer frame can be scanned. Said sensor pin further can be moved relative to a tie-bar of the spacer frame as also to another sensor pin being movably carried by this tie-bar.
Further, all the movements of the screwing apparatus, the distance positioning supporting device, the gripping jaw device, the claw unit and the positioning laying-on device for said frame connected to a tie-bar of the mounting frame, are networked with one another so that the spacer frame and the muntin bars or the muntin grating to be installed therein can be arranged into a desired screwing position before carrying out the screwing process, wherein these elements can be fixedly held until terminating this process.
By using a precise guiding system including an electronic scanning system, the positions of the spacer frame and the muntins or the muntin grating as also the ones of the machining units are continuously controlled and compared with one another, so that a possibly misalignment is immediately corrected. By employing special torque clutches and electronic sensors both the screwing actions and the screwing depth are controlled.